he volatility of activism during the war, the feminism movement was off to a powerful start postwar.
Flaubert’s Madame Bovary introduces feminism almost immediately by giving the roles of men and women. Flaubert starts by giving the reader a walkthrough of Charles Bovary, the protagonist’s husband, childhood. The reader follows him from life at school to his life at home. Bovary’s father is introduced as a dependent, drunk, womanizing farmer. Bovary’s mother however, is a strong housewife that manages to deal with her subpar husband. Charles’ mother managed to not only play the role of a housewife, but also manages the family’s financial stability. Because of the way she is mistreated by her husband, Charles’ mother spoils Charles. He had become the man of her life. The setting then advances to where Charles meets his first wife Heloise and marries her. His first wife, Heloise, is much older than Charles and is apparently wealthy in the duration of their marriage. Heloise, however, did not play a traditional role like the first Madame Bovary the reader is introduced to. In this marriage, Heloise is the dominant presence; she does not serve Charles, but rather uses him as someone to listen to her persevering nags and complaints. This depicts that although traditional marriage was still quite common, marriages such as the one between Charles and Heloise existed.
Although traditional marriages still existed at the time of the novel’s publishing, the prevalence of traditional marriages we...